Ep 10, Dogs of War
by A wee Moose
Summary: early 23rd century battle, Klingons vs. UFP


Big Movie Intro

_Kridnar Nav Block._

Stardate 930 (October 30, 2242)

A vital sector fought over between the Klingons and the United Federation of Planets.

Seven major fleet battles were fought here in the era before the grand Constitution and Miranda class ships were commissioned. This is the story between the USS Gato (NCC 1670) and the Klingon C6 cruiser, IKS Praxis.

The two badly damaged survivors from the fleet battle that started three hours ago, make repairs and prepare to continue the fight.

**Taylen Commerce Ship, Hapta - Cargo Hold**

Two men spoke, surrounded by an enormous number of boxes, crates, containers and a sundry of other, exotic, unpackaged items stored in the vast hold. Around them, staff did what staff should always do around their superiors - look busy.

Administrator Rolq, in a very loud, and seemingly unending voice, was arguing with the Enumerator, who by contrast spoke quietly and mostly in monosylabic terms.

Rolq was in full flow.

"Your count is wrong, and it is very easy to see how that occurred, you are incompetent. Further your staff seem to lack all basic understanding of the Laws of Mathematics. I constantly find errors that a child would not make, and all I get is weak excuses and pointed accusations that I or my department is in error. I will not tolerate this degree of.."

"The count is accurate, Administrator." The Enumerator's voice was a little more forceful this time, but, seemengly unheard.

Rolq was unperturbed by his opposite numbers repetition, nor was he going to allow any 'noise' that Enumerator Gald might make, to interrupt his tirade.

"...ineptitude. The fact is that you have, once again - and I have a long list of these occurrences, all submitted to the Captain, mind you - that create a confusing and innacurate tally of the goods that we have on..." Rolq's interminable complaints were cut off as the lights dimmed, abruptly, to a deep, cobalt blue, and then brightened again.

"This is not over, Gald!" Rolq hurried from the Cargo Bay. Gald turned back to his pain-staking and supremely accurate counting of all the things that he held in his care.

**Hapta Bridge**

The bridge was almost in darkness when the Captain arrived.

"Lights!" He said aloud.

The Bridge sprung into a cascading carnival of of hues, that would delight the eyes of a human child at Christmas. Small tinkling, chiruping and, not to be rude - flatulant - noises seemed to follow the merry, and almost chaotic, arrival of of light.

"Computer? If the Bridge Crew is not here in the next...", He thought for a moment,"...thirty seconds, you are all fired. In which case, please make yourself available at the nearest Airlock." Captain Adakel allowed himself a small, mischievous grin. _"I guess they will be here in twenty"_, he thought.

The Bridge doors opened and Rolq was the first to be on hand._"No change there."_ Adakel reminded himself.

"Rolq, is there anywhere in the universe, that you do not turn up first? There are those that are wagering that you turned up before your own birth! Now that I would have liked to have seen. The argument between you, and your newborn self. Who would win I wonder? Perhaps it has actually happend!. Who are you Rolg? The 'Elder', or the 'Younger'?" The Captain made wry smile.

"Shhh, Sir, we might miss something."

"Rolq, Trade requires another to 'trade' with. We have a debris field. If you want to haggle with metal and various, unidentified proteins and enzymes that were once living individuals, and are now currently floating in a tight orbit around their own demise, please do so, but not tell your Captain to "Shhh", out loud." Adakel was a little annoyed at his Administrator.

"My apologies, Captain. I meant only that I am sure that I heard something...'live'...in the sensor information."

"Can you find it, isolate it?" Adakel was now all business.

Rolq instructed the Bridge Crew in the finer points of 'finding interesting things'. After three minutes, the results were clear for all to see.

The Captain looked at his Administrator with a steady and admiring eye. "Rolq, I think, when you cease to amaze me, I will simply drop down dead."

"Helm, set course for the Battle Site."

The Commerce Ship, Hapta, moved in a graceful arc to survey a potential profit, and to enter a killing field, where the dead had not all fallen.

"Captain, another warp signature dead ahead!"

"What?" He looked down at his own panels, and bit his lip. "Damn! You were right, Schleist! They're going to triangulate and run us down. Lukacz, drop to sublight immediately, change bearing to 94 mark 2, and engage at maximum warp."

"Bridge to Engineering," Takashi called out, "we need that core to hold together longer than five minutes."

"We'll try, Commander, but it's already being held together by sheer  
willpower."

"Captain," Schleist bellowed. "Two torpedoes from opposite directions!

We'll be caught in the crossfire! Impact in..."

Sparks flew from the back wall of the bridge. Schleist flew over his console from the blow, and slammed into the back of the captain's chair. The force of his velocity caused the chair to snap, and it toppled to the ground with Captain Hagen in it.

Takashi slapped her badge and manned the Security console. "Emergency! Medical to the bridge! Two casualties!" She noticed that the console was on fire, and rerouted all the major controls to the Science station next to it, shoving Bradley out of the way. "Bradley! Check on the captain!"

The intercom chirped again. "The chamber's flooding Engineering, Bridge! We've got to drop out of warp now!"

"Ensign Lukacz, drop to full impulse and initiate..."

"Incoming torpedo!"

The bridge shook again, harder this time, and Saboc flew backwards, his uniform and face horribly burned. The turbolift doors swished open, and the medical team went to work on him and the captain.

Takashi wiped sweat and soot from her brow. Ops was gone, the captain was down, and they had no warp power. "Lukacz, where's our ships?"

"They've exceeded maximum safe warp, sir! They'll be here in twenty..."

The front of the bridge exploded as another torpedo burst impacted. The Conn panel came loose and slammed into Lukacz's chest. She slumped over.

"Bradley! Take over at Ops and initiate maneuver Zed Zed Zed! We need just a few more seconds!" She manually targeted the phasers, and fired on the nearest Klingon vessel. The phasers managed to pierce the shields and do minimal damage to its hull. "Direct hit!" she called out.

Through the smoke and noise, the communicator crackled into life.

"Qa'Oar, this is the Gato. We understand your situation and are engaging the Klingon threat. Pilot your vessel to course 241 mark 78 at best possible speed."

She wiped her brow again. "You heard the man, Bradley. Bridge to Engineering, we need best possible speed."

"We're limping as it is now, Commander. I can give you Warp 1 for about three minutes, and then this chamber's going to shut down."

"Do your best, Engineering. We need to get as far from the battle as possible." She put the panel on standby and rushed over to the medical team.

Schleist was covered with a medical blanket over his face, and Saboc was being  
sent to Sickbay in a stretcher. Lukacz was coming around, but she was having  
some trouble breathing. She kneeled down next to the team by Captain Hagen,  
but they were starting to cover him up as well.

Dr. Mancuso looked at her with deep blue eyes. "I'm sorry, Commander.  
His neck snapped in the fall. He died instantly." He got up and assisted Lukacz  
to the turbolift.

Bradley turned to her. "Warp engines off-line. We're in the clear, but  
we're also dead in the water. Nothing to do now but wait."

Captain Sara Takashi slowly sank into her chair, staring at the flickering screen of the ongoing battle, but her thoughts kept wandering back to other times, other places. Death is but a doorway.

A nearby Klingon vessel repaired their impulse engines and closed in on the Qa'Oar. Five seconds later the Klingon disruptors cut the Federation ship to pieces, it blew up, the shockwave from the destroyed warp core also destroyed the damaged Klingon Heavy Cruiser.

On the nearby USS Gato, Captain Gabojosie and the bridge crew looked on in horror. Lieutenant Commander Turas was not even fazed one bit. No big surprise there.

The Gato too was engufled in the shockwave. A Fusion torpedo in the firing tube exploded prematurely Gravity was knocked off line.

Gabojosie noticed the Bolian communications officer was floating off his chair, he was terribly confused, like the first time Gabojosie ever experienced weightlessness.

"Well, this is fun." he said. Gabojosie jumped forward and up, floating slowly towards the Bolian.

He caught the blue humaniod. Another leap off the ceiling and they headed back to the floor. "Commander Turas. Damage report. And get gravity online while you are at it."

**Taylen Bridge**

"They are doing...what?"

Sensor Control reported.

"Fighting, Sir"

"Take us into an 'opaque' approach." There was a great amout humour in the Captains voice.

"Still at it?"

"yes, Sir"

"Fire a volley accros their calculated trajectories, I am interested to see what they do."

"they have broke"

"Hold station."

"Captain?"

"Let us wait and watch."

The viewscreen held the antagonists in a momentary embrace.

**Captain Gabojosie - USS Gato**

"Four Torpedoes fired. Unknown location." the Nei girl, Crewman Nasak, yelled.

On the viewscreen, the four missiles flew past, barely 30 meters from the external camera mounted on the forward bow.

"Klingons ?" Gabojosie asked.

"I don't know." was Nasak's response. This is when the Gato's shield was slammed by debris and due to the lack of gravity everyone collided with the forward wall.

Gabojosie hit the metal wall facing backwards with a painful smack, heard his ribs crack. _Mortal Coil_ he thought. He knew he was dying now.

**USS Gato**

"Status?" Gabojosie croaked, slowly picking himself off the floor and limping to the Captain's chair. It took a few moments to realize that the gravity had come back online, and a glance at his displays told him that warp capability was back up, too. _I'll have to thank that frigid Vulcan, if he even understands thanks._

"We're trying to locate the source of the torpedoes Sir, but I'm almost certain they weren't from the Klingon. The angles are all wrong." Nasak tapped at her console frantically, ignorant of the trickle of blood inching down her face from a deep gash on her head. A moment later, she looked up. "Captain, this makes no sense... our calculated origin point for those torpedoes is a patch of empty space. There's nothing there, Sir."

"Keep scanning, then. Those torpedoes didn't come from nowhere. Open hailing frequencies," he started to say, but thought better of it. "No, belay that. Let's not tip our hand here. I want that rogue vessel found before we start hailing."

"On it, Sir."

"And keep an eye on the Klingons," Gabojosie said. "I've already had enough surprises for one day."

**USS Gato**

Captain Gabojosie had studied Klingon tactics for 6 years. As his damaged ship was surrounded by debris of 33 ships, Federation and Klingon, he wondered where his opponent or opponents were hiding.

"It could be cloaked." Crewman Nasak suggested.

"A cloaking device is impossible." Gabojosie fired back.

Gabojosie closed his eyes as millions of red and black stars fought for supremecy. He felt weak and sleepy. "And get a medic up here."

**USS Gato**

"Can't you loosen that thing any?" Gabojosie growled softly, wincing as the compression bandage dug into his chest. The medic had patched up the worst of his wounds and braced his fractured ribs, but hadn't been able to do anything about the slow internal bleeding that would eventually kill him if he didn't get to Sickbay. Unfortunately, Death would just have to wait a while. There was at least one Klingon still alive out there, on top of the as-yet unidentified rogue ship, and Gabojosie had no intent of leaving this job unfinished.

"Captain? I think we might have a lead on our rogue vessel." The voice of Crewman Narak cut through his thoughts, and he forced himself to focus.

"What is it?"

"I picked up some strange ion emissions in the area we calculated as the torpedoes' point of origin. At first I thought it was just residual from the torps' drives, but then I noticed a pattern. They're using a very sophisticated cloaking device, sir, and apparently they can fire through it at will."

"Fire through a cloak? That's impossible!" Gabojosie nearly leapt out of his chair, only sitting when the pain in his chest forced him to.

"I wish it was, sir." The Nei girl's voice and expression showed mixed apology and consternation. "Their torpedoes are equipped with cloak emitters of their own, and they're tuned to the same frequency as the ship's cloak, so they can slip right through without interference. Once they're clear of the cloak, they drop the frequency emission and act like normal torpedoes. It's quite clever."

"Tricky devils." The vague, nebulous clouds of a plan were beginning to form in Gabojosie's mind. "Open hailing frequencies. Tell them who we are and that we're badly damaged and in need of assistance. Perhaps we can have these tricksters play a little joke on the Klingons."

**Klingon Cruiser- Kathan'j**

_The cruiser had been badly damage in the battle and for the last hour his crewman had worked determined with repairs... _

The Klingon Captain laughed out in content. This was a glorious day for battle.  
He watched the Starfleet ship dead ahead on the view screen. Suddenly the Starfleet ship was attacked by some unknown torpedoes.

The Captain said surprised, almost angry. "What in the ¤&#!". He watched the view screen closely, trying to see the attacker of USS Gato. He asked him self if another Klingon cruiser survived? He cried out, "Status!"

"Sir, I can't detect the attacker. It must be a clocked ship." He turned around and looked at his captain. "They don't seem have detected us. " As if the crewman knew what the captain was thinking he said. "It would be advisable to do nothing, sir!"

The Captain gave a peevish answer "Nothing! Sitting here and watching like cowards…"

"Sir, considering that our ship isn't fully repaired…" The captain looked angry at the young crewman who he thought knew very little about honor. In the Captains mind the right thing was to fight, even it meant death, but his crewman would rather wait and watch. He grunted as he watched the ship ahead. "..What can you say about the attacker. "

"They are obvious clocked with clocked torpedoes." The Captain thought to him self. "_Could it be Romulans?" _He wouldn't be surprised if they where. Those low creatures are surely without honor..

The chief engineer reports "Captain, 85 of the systems are repaired and working. Torpedoes, impulse engines, sensors and hull is now functional. Life-support system in deck 4 to 6 and warp engines are still out and…

Another crewman interrupts. "Captain, The Starfleet vessel is hailing us. They are requesting for assistance. "

The Captain smiled as he watched the ship, USS Gato. So they want our help, ...

**USS Gato, Ready Room**

Watching the Klingon vessel on his displays, Gabojosie thought frantically of ways to get his ship and his crew safely out of this mess. The Gato was still crippled, despite a heroic effort from Turas and the rest of the Engineering crew. They'd managed to restore partial warp and impulse power, and their shields were holding at 33. However, the maneuvering systems were badly compromised, they had no weapons to speak of, and the targeting systems were still down. Even if they could fight, they'd be shooting blind.

To make matters worse, the Klingons had taken advantage of the lull in battle to conduct a few repairs of their own. Even from this distance, the camera's magnifiers could pick out suited figures on the cruiser's hull, and that meant the Klingons were probably going to get things done faster than the Gato. Which, in turn, meant that unless he could come up with a plan, and soon, Gabojosie, his ship and his crew would become just another addition to the Federation's roll of the war dead.

Gabojosie sat silent in his comfortable desk chair, lost in thought, trying his best to ignore the stabbing pain every time he breathed, and the slowly increasing tightness in his chest and abdomen. _The wild card here is that rogue vessel. Clearly they could easily destroy both us and the Klingons... so why aren't they doing anything? Could it be that they don't care to get their hands dirty?_

"Captain, we've intercepted a signal from the Klingons," Narak said over the intercom, cutting through his reverie. "They're talking with the rogue vessel. With your permission, we can tap the signal..."

Gabojosie's heart sank, but he nodded impatiently. "Do it."

A few moments later, the transmission, staticky and somewhat garbled due to the encryption, played over the room's loudspeakers. _"you had any honor, you would fight alongside us!"_ roared a voice in heavily accented Standard.

The voice that replied was mild, almost amused. _"We said nothing about honor, we said we wished to reach a profitable arrangement. Clearly you offer nothing of value by destroying the Federation vessel, but it doesn't profit us any to destroy you, either. Good day, sir."_

Seconds later, two torpedoes flashed out from the Klingon vessel, followed by two more, and another pair after that. The Klingons were trying to flush the rogues out, but their torpedoes kept exploding harmlessly, unable to acquire a target.

"Well, this is interesting," Gabojosie said softly, just as his desk terminal began flashing "INCOMING TRANSMISSION." "The rogues don't like fighting, but they don't mind taking sides." He reached out and opened the channel.

**Bridge - Ten minutes later**

Back on the bridge, Gabojosie turned to Crewman Nei once more. "Open a comms channel. All frequencies, all bands - I want everyone out there to hear me."

**IKC Praxis**

_"...Attention Klingon cruiser Praxis. We have opened communications with an unidentified alien vessel and are negotiating for a cease-fire. We are also prepared to accept your immediate surrender. You are hereby ordered to acknowledge and stand down your weapons. If you do not comply, we will be forced to fire on you."_

"Federation cowards," the Klingon captain spit. "Tactical, are they conducting targeting sweeps?"

"Negative sir," said the young crewman manning the weapons station.

"Glorious," the captain replied, a feral smile spreading across his face. "The first lesson of battle... if he's not targeting, he's bluffing. Lock on torpedoes, full spread."

"But Captain, that'll take a good five minutes. We can disable them with a single shot."

"I don't care to disable them, you spineless targ," the Klingon captain snapped. "I wish to blow them out of the galaxy."

**USS Gato - One minute later**

Gabojosie tapped at his console, opening an intercom line to Engineering. "Mr. Turas, where are we on weapons?"

"Our phasers are still completely disabled. One torpedo launcher is available for manual operation only, but the auto-loader is still inoperable," the unflappable Vulcan engineer replied. "We are attempting repairs, but I expect that the unit will require replacement at a Starbase."

"Hmm," the captain noised. "So we can fire _one_ torpedo, _manually,_ but we have no way of telling it where to go. Terrific." Thinking a moment, he asked, "Our torpedoes can home in on a pre-programmed frequency, right?"

"That is correct, Captain." The engineer sounded annoyed at the question, but Gabojosie had finally formulated a plan and was running with it. "What if we tag the Klingon vessel? We know our friends the Taylens can run cloaked, so if they can get in close enough to plant a tracking device on the Klingons, we won't need targeting. We can just let the torpedo run itself."

Commander Turas was silent for a moment, and when he responded, his voice was grudgingly respectful. "Your plan depends greatly on the operation of chance factors, Captain, but it is eminently logical."

"Keep me informed." Gabojosie closed the intercom and opened the channel to the Taylen vessel. "Captain Adakel, here is my proposal..."

**Three minutes later**

In the course of their trading run, the crew of the Taylen commerce ship Hapta had acquired thousands of tons of interesting, beautiful or useful goods. Among those items was a consignment of miniaturized tracking transponders, designed to broadcast the location of a ship, a satellite, a shuttlecraft or any other mobile object. They were tough beyond belief, incorporated multiple fail-safe mechanisms to ensure optimum functioning, and could be programmed to any frequency.

They could also, with the help of a small magnet, be clandestinely attached to just about anything metallic.

As the Klingon vessel lurched into motion, closing distance and turning toward its new target, a small one-man shuttle, also cloaked, launched from the Hapta. It crossed the distance between the two ships easily, and as it flew alongside the Klingon cruiser, it almost casually launched a beacon. The device clamped onto the cruiser's hull and activated itself, broadcasting at full power on the frequency previously agreed to by the Taylens and the Gato.

**IKC Praxis - Thirty seconds later**

"What the devil is THAT?" the Klingon captain roared as a loud, insistent series of beeps filled the bridge.

"Captain, they've planted some kind of tracking device on our hull! They tagged us!"

"Fire everything we have at them!"

The crewman looked terrified. "Weapons won't be online for another thirty seconds, sir!"

**USS Gato - Fifteen seconds later**

"Captain, we're picking up the tracking beacon... torpedo has acquired lock."

Gabojosie took a deep breath, steadied his nerves. "Mr. Turas, you may fire."

The torpedo lanced out of its tube, drawn inexorably to the tracking beacon attached to the Klingon cruiser's hull. Seconds ticked past - five, ten - and then there was a flash of light as the torpedo detonated, ripping through what was left of the shielding and blowing a massive chunk out of the cruiser's hull. Debris and air gushing from her savaged flank, the Klingon vessel listed dangerously to starboard before, in a second cataclysm, the vessel's warp core let go and she erupted in a blaze of nuclear fury.

"Direct hit, sir. She's gone... and I'm picking up no lifepods in the debris."

"Very well. Stand down from Red Alert. Narak, you have the bridge. I will be in Sickbay." Gabojosie paused for a moment, staring sadly at the image of glowing dust where the Klingon vessel used to be, and limped into the lift.

As the debris of the Praxis settled, a massive, rather oddly shaped and even more oddly colored vessel emerged from its cloak and coasted toward the Gato. A few thousand meters away, it stopped, and a series of shuttlecraft emerged from its bays, transferring much-needed supplies and repair materials over to the Federation vessel.

All at a rather handsome mark-up, of course.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Captain," the Taylen Administrator said, bowing deeply to Gabojosie as the men stood in the Hapta's shuttle bay, three days after the battle with the Praxis. "And you say this Federation of yours is looking for trade partners?"

Gabojosie smiled, nodding. "I can't speak for the Federation at large, but I suspect you would find a warm welcome, especially among the border worlds. Not much trade makes it out there."

Rolq smiled broadly, and one could almost see the credits tallying in the Taylen's eyes. "If it is as you say, Captain, this may be the start of a beautiful friendship."

An hour or so later, the Gato leapt into warp, headed for home.

FIN

Bonus points if you recognize the battle scene.


End file.
